Returning to Earth in the modern day, the Doctor and Rose discover that
humanity has embraced what are believed to be ghosts come back from the
dead. Suspicious, the Doctor follows the trail of the ghosts to the
headquarters of the sinister Torchwood Institute, which has been
established to deal with alien incursions on British soil. But Torchwood
itself has been compromised, and may be the first casualty in a
transdimensional war which will engulf the Earth -- a war between the
Cybermen and the Daleks.

Production

By the end of 1967, the Daleks and the Cybermen had cemented their
status as the shining stars of Doctor Who's carnival of monsters.
On December 5th, an approach was made to Dalek creator Terry Nation
about having both races appear together in an adventure. This was
hastily vetoed by Nation (and the Cybermen-only serial The Wheel In Space was made in its place).
Indeed, over the course of the original Doctor Who series, only
one story -- the twentieth-anniversary special The
Five Doctors -- included roles for both the Daleks and the
Cybermen, and in that instance the two monsters did not even meet.

While charting the course for the second season of the revived Doctor
Who programme, however, executive producer Russell T Davies hit upon
the idea of ending the year with the realisation of that long-dismissed
Dalek/Cyberman idea. The Daleks had already proven tremendously popular
during the 2005 season, practically demanding that they be brought back
the next year, and Davies had every intention of resurrecting the
Cybermen for the show's sophomore season.

Russell T Davies felt that killing Rose would be too
demoralising

Such an epic conflict would also provide a suitable backdrop for the
exit of Rose Tyler, made necessary by Billie Piper's decision early in
2005 to leave Doctor Who after her second season. Davies planted
the seeds for Rose's departure via the mid-year introduction of the new
Cybermen and the parallel Earth of their provenance, in Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of
Steel. He had recognised the fact that only a calamity of cosmic
proportions would suffice to separate the Doctor and Rose. Having ruled
out the notion of simply killing Rose on the grounds of it being too
demoralising, Davies instead decided to trap her in a parallel universe
to which the Doctor could never return.

The two-part story which would write Rose out of Doctor Who was
initially called Army Of Ghosts, and would be written by Davies
himself. A crucial element of the adventure was the Torchwood Institute.
This had first been mentioned in Bad
Wolf the year before, the name being an anagram of “Doctor
Who” created to camouflage tapes issued by the production office.
Davies decided to use it as the linking element of the second season, in
much the same way as “Bad Wolf” had been in 2005. Torchwood
was seen in action in The Christmas
Invasion; was referred to on Mickey's computer in School Reunion; appeared on Rose's mobile
phone and was mentioned in conversation by Pete Tyler in Rise Of The Cybermen; was namedropped by
the policemen in The Idiot's Lantern and
by Victor Kennedy in Love & Monsters;
was the agency responsible for the mission to the black hole in The Impossible Planet / The Satan
Pit (under the guise of the Torchwood Archive); and was
referenced on TV in Fear Her. Most
notably, Tooth And Claw depicted the
creation of the Torchwood Institute by Queen Victoria in 1879.

Davies originally intended Torchwood to be based in Cardiff, on the time
rift which had been introduced in The Unquiet
Dead. When a Torchwood spin-off series was commissioned
in mid-2005, however, Davies took the opportunity to base that programme
in Cardiff and shifted the action of Army Of Ghosts to Canary
Wharf in London. Davies briefly considered calling the two episodes
“Torchwood Rises” and “Torchwood Falls”, but the
first installment later reverted to Army Of Ghosts while the
season finale became Doomsday.

There was debate as to whether Pete Tyler or Mickey Smith
should save Rose from the Void

A key point of debate in Davies' scripts was the climactic moment in
which Rose is saved from the Void. Davies and executive producer Julie
Gardner felt that her rescuer should be Pete, since this would emphasise
his acceptance of Rose as his surrogate daughter. However, some thought
was given to assigning this role to Mickey, a position championed by
producer Phil Collinson and Mickey actor Noel Clarke. Meanwhile, one
expensive sequence removed from the script for Doomsday at the
development stage involved the Doctor and Rose ascending to the top of
Torchwood Tower in the Jathaa Sun Glider (described as a “space
canoe”) mentioned in Army Of Ghosts; this was replaced with
the much simpler moment of Jake summoning them into the lift.

The notion of the Genesis Ark needing to be activated by a time
traveller was devised to give a reason for the Daleks keeping Rose and
Mickey alive for so long at the start of Doomsday. Davies also
thought that this provided silent motivation for why the Daleks would
have chosen to appear in twenty-first century London, since it was the
most likely time and place to find the Doctor or one of his associates.
He opted not to make this explicit, however, since it would pile too
much grief upon the Doctor in what was already a tragic story,
implicating him in the many deaths.

As written, nothing physically differentiated the four Daleks, given the
names Sec, Thay, Caan and Rabe (amended to Jast at a very late stage in
production because it was felt to sound too much like “Ray”)
in an intentional break with tradition. Production designer Edward
Thomas encouraged having Sec appear in black livery, hearkening back to
other Black Daleks which had taken command positions throughout the
original Doctor Who series. Davies also indicated that the Cyber
Leaders should have black handles on their helmets, a design element
which was also in keeping with Doctor Who tradition.

To ensure the availability of Noel Clarke and Shaun Dingwall -- for whom
the making of Doomsday would be the culmination of their
on-screen association with Doctor Who -- it was decided to make
both episodes in one epic block alongside the year's other Cyberman
story, Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of
Steel. This would be the season's third recording block,
directed by Graeme Harper. Amongst the cast was Freema Agyeman, playing
Adeola. Having gotten her start in theatre -- including an adaptation of
the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Lords And Ladies --
Agyeman had enjoyed a regular role in the soap opera Crossroads,
and subsequently chalked up appearances in programmes including
Casualty @ Holby City and The Bill.

Distribution of the final pages of Doomsday was limited to preserve the cliffhanger
surprise

The production team was careful not to distribute the final pages of
Doomsday to any but the most essential of cast and crew. Their
intent was to safeguard both the Doctor's final conversation with Rose
and the cliffhanger ending, which would lead into The Runaway Bride, the 2006 Christmas
special.

Filming began on November 2nd, 2005, with the Brandon Estate in
Kennington, London, posing as the Powell Estate for the last time. Shots
of Westminster Bridge were also taken on this day. On the 16th, the
interview with purported psychic Derek Acorah (host of Most
Haunted) was recorded at Tredegar House in Newport, while the
appearance of the police commissioner was taped at the Doctor Who
studio space of Unit Q2, also in Newport. The Tyler estate on the
parallel Earth was actually a home at Coedarhydyglyn in St Nicholas.
Shooting took place there on the 21st; the “Ectoshine”
advertisement was filmed simultaneously.

Army Of Ghosts / Doomsday became the principal focus of
the production block beginning on November 29th; this was the start of
four consecutive days at Unit Q2 concentrating on material in and around
the Sphere Chamber. On December 6th, the Tyler family driving through
rural Norway was taped at Heol Spencer in Bryncethyn, while the nearby
Brackla Bunkers in Bridgend played host to various corridor scenes on
the 7th. December 8th and 9th saw the start of work on the Lever Room
set at Unit Q2. On the 10th, street scenes (including the clip from
Japan) were completed at Mount Stuart Square on Cardiff Bay. Further
work in the Lever Room then took place both before and after Christmas,
running from December 12th to 15th and January 3rd to 5th, 2006. The
Ghostwatch material with television presenter Alistair Appleton
was also taped on the 4th.

January 6th was spent at HTV Studios in Culverhouse Cross, to film
scenes in the disused Torchwood corridor. This was Agyeman's last day on
the story, and by now she had caught the eye of the production team who
were searching for someone to play the Doctor's new companion in the
2007 season. Piper's exit from Doctor Who was still being kept
secret -- although it had been rumoured in the press for months -- and
so to avoid tipping their hand, Agyeman was asked to audition for a role
she was told would feature in the Torchwood spin-off series.

Freema Agyeman thought she was auditioning for a role in
Torchwood, not the new companion

More footage in Mount Stuart Square was captured on the 7th, while
scenes in the Torchwood hangar were enacted at RAF St Athan in Barry on
the 9th and 10th. Additional material set around the Powell Estate was
recorded at Loudoun Square in Gabalfa, Cardiff on January 12th. More
hangar shots were completed at RAF St Athan on the 13th, in addition to
greenscreen work for Rose being sucked into the Void. Parts of the
conflict between the Cybermen and the British military were filmed on
January 15th at Cardiff Dockside. The same day, further sequences in the
corridors of the Torchwood Institute were captured at the Capital Arcade
in Cardiff.

Only essential crew made the journey to Southerndown Beach, in Ogmore
Vale near Bridgend, on January 16th. In addition to posing as the alien
planet seen in the opening flashbacks of Army Of Ghosts, this was
also the location of Darlig Ulv Stranden: Bad Wolf Bay. Although Piper
still had five episodes left to film, this was nonetheless a highly
emotional shoot; it was also the last day of recording for both Noel
Clarke and Shaun Dingwall. Clarke, however, would maintain his
association with Doctor Who -- both by appearing in some of the
TARDISodes for the season and through writing the
Torchwood episode Combat.

Two days at Unit Q2 then followed on January 17th and 18th, with the
first day emphasising TARDIS scenes while the second day involved the
sets for both the Tylers' flat and various areas of Torchwood. The 19th
began with filming at a residence in Canton, Cardiff for the sequences
involving the Cybermen terrorising a family, and concluded with the
flashback to a seventeen year-old Rose on the bus, recorded at the Hayes
in Cardiff. January 20th was spent back at Unit Q2 for various inserts.
The clip from Trisha, a talk show hosted by Trisha Goddard, was
taped at Teddington Studios on January 27th following a regular
installment of the programme. Barbara Windsor subsequently filmed a faux
EastEnders scene for Army Of Ghosts, in character as Peggy
Mitchell, at the BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. More
inserts were recorded at Unit Q2 on March 9th.

Catherine Tate's scene was filmed with a skeleton crew
during the Doctor Who wrap party

On February 15th, Agyeman -- now aware that she had been auditioning for
Doctor Who -- was cast as new companion Martha Jones. However,
Davies wanted to hold off introducing the character until the start of
the 2007 season. Instead, he devised the notion of having The Runaway Bride pair the Doctor with a
one-off character played by a well-known actor. Eventually cast as the
Bride (who at this point had not been named) was comedienne Catherine
Tate. After getting her start in series such as The Bill, Tate's
fame became ascendant, with roles in programmes like That Peter Kay
Thing and Wild West culminating in the successful The
Catherine Tate Show. At the same time, Tate continued to make
appearance in dramas including Marple and Bleak House.
Davies was adamant that Tate's casting come as a complete surprise to
the audience, and so not even Harper was informed of the content of
Doomsday's final scene until the last possible minute. This was
recorded at Unit Q2, again with a skeleton crew, on March 31st while the
Doctor Who wrap party was getting under way.

The last filming performed for Doctor Who's second season took
place at Unit 31 of the Enfys Television Studios in Cardiff on April
11th, and consisted of a variety of pick-up shots. Ending months of
speculation, the BBC finally confirmed that Piper would be leaving the
show on June 15th, with Agyeman then being introduced to the press with
a photocall on July 4th. Shockingly, both Army Of Ghosts and
Doomsday were accorded covers of the Radio Times, the
finale even being promoted with the choice of two images (featuring the
Daleks and the Cybermen, respectively, with a football theme to tie in
with the broadcast of the 2006 World Cup). This brought to an astounding
four the number of episodes granted Radio Times covers over the
course of the 2006 season, following New
Earth and Rise Of The
Cybermen.

The TARDISode for Doomsday originally featured the Doctor at Rose
and Jackie's graves

For his final TARDISodes of the year, writer Gareth Roberts
initially wanted to feature profiles of the Doctor and Rose to accompany
Army Of Ghosts and Doomsday, respectively. The former
would have come in the shape of clips from a Torchwood training video,
while the latter was to involve Jackie discussing her daughter. Roberts'
first idea for the DoomsdayTARDISode culminated with the
Doctor laying flowers at what are revealed to be Rose's and Jackie's
graves; later, he conceived the notion of having the TARDISode
take the form of a dating service advertisement, with the man watching
it ultimately attacked by a Cyberman. In the end, however, the 58-second
TARDISode for Army Of Ghosts featured a reporter delving
into the history of Torchwood, only to be betrayed by his editor and
committed to an asylum. Its Doomsday counterpart, also 58 seconds
long, showed a news anchor reporting on the Cyberman invasion, whereupon
her studio is attacked by the Daleks.

Doomsday was broadcast on July 8th, drawing the revived Doctor
Who series' second season to a close. The programme had managed to
maintain the popularity of its inaugural year, despite the fact that the
entire cast of regular and supporting characters introduced in Rose had now departed. Modern audiences
seemed to have smoothly accepted a new Doctor. The question now raised
was whether they could grow accustomed to a change in the companion, the
very character who represented their window into the universe of
Doctor Who.